here was no use in further
attempts to find the caravan. Following the Mongol custom, I carried a
long rope attached to my saddle-bow, and with this I managed to
picket the pony where he could graze and satisfy his hunger. How I
envied his ability to eat the grass, which, though scanty, was quite
sufficient. I tried to sleep, but sleeping was no easy matter. First,
I had the consciousness of being lost. Then I was suffering from
hunger and thirst, and the night, like all the nights in Mongolia,
even in midsummer, was decidedly chilly, and as I had only my ordinary
clothing, the cold caused me to shiver violently. The few snatches of
sleep I caught were troubled with many dreams, none of them pleasant.
All sorts of horrible fancies passed through my brain, and I verily
believe that though I did not sleep half an hour in the whole night,
the incidents of my dreams were enough for a thousand years.

[Illustration: LOST IN THE DESERT OF GOBI.]

"Thoughts of being devoured by wild beasts haunted me, though in truth
I had little of this fate to fear. The only carnivorous beasts on the
desert are wolves, but as game is abundant, and can be caught with
ordinary exertion, they have no occasion to feed upon men. About
midnight my fears were roused by my pony taking alarm at the approach
of some wild beast. He snorted and pulled at his rope, and had it not
been for my efforts to soothe him, he would have broken away and fled.
I saw nothing and heard nothing, though I fancied I could discover
half a dozen dark forms on the horizon, and hear a subdued howl from
an animal I supposed to be a wolf.

"Morning came. I was suffering from hunger, and more from thirst. My
throat was parched, my tongue was swollen, and there was a choking
sensation as if I were undergoing strangulation. How I longed for
water! Mounting my horse, I rode slowly along the ridge toward the
west, and after proceeding several miles, discovered a small lake to
my right. My horse scented it earlier than I, and needed no urging to
reach it. Dismounting, I bent over and drank from the edge, which was
marked with the tracks of antelopes, and of numerous aquatic birds.
The water was brackish and bitter, but I drank it with eagerness. My
thirst was satisfied, but the water gave me a severe pain in my
stomach, that soon became almost as unendurable as the previous
dryness. I stood for some minutes on the shore of the lake, and
preparing to remount my horse, the bridle